Dear Members and Friends:

Our next meeting will be held on JULY 17th, at the newly renovated Belle Cooledge Library, 5600 South Land Park Drive, 95822 from 1:30 until 4. If you were at the Slumberama in January, you would have heard me announce that I had good news and bad news. The good news was that I had secured July 17th for our summer meeting and August 21st for our Turtlerama. The bad news was that the library would be closed all of March, April and May leaving all of the organizations who use the room, without a meeting place. So our 29th anniversary celebration will have to wait until July and believe me, I will be guarding our cake!!

At the winter meeting, Chase won top prize for her dessert which was a cheesecake and I thank you all for your participation and wonderful cookies, etc. The meeting was well attended and we had quite an extensive question and answer period. It started out badly tho since the library didn't open that day until 1 pm for some unknown reason and we were all standing outside freezing in the cold and damp air.

I'm beginning to write this newsletter in early March. Winter is still raging outside with fog, cold, wind, rain and even hail and lightening! The gloom arrived in December and has been relentless. There have been no balmy or even sunny days. I've lived here since 1971 and cannot remember a worse winter. I thought I was back in New York!

Let's thank Elaine Martinez for going to the F&G meeting in February to say something about stopping the turtles from coming into California for the food trade. The F&G is contemplating doing something about it, but I'm not sure when or what. I heard that the markets would be required to post a sign saying that the turtles must not be released into the wild. They may have stopped issuing permits to sell the turtles in the first place.

Anyway, it's too early to say 'see you at the meeting', so I'll just tell you to call me, email me or go to our FACEBOOK page for up to date happenings or for help with turtle problems. I'm sorry about not having a meeting but nothing we had in mind seemed to work.

Spring Idea: How about growing your own mealworms? All you need is a plastic container with high sides. I usually have several of them going at once in case one suffers a catastrophe. Buy some plain 'bran' at the supermarket (in the cereal aisle) and fill the container a little over half full. Buy a couple of packs of mealworms and put them in there. Every few days, cut a raw potato into thin slices and place it on top of the bran. Pretty soon you'll notice beetles and also pupae in there as the mealworms morph into other life forms and soon you will have more mealworms than you ever dreamed of. Leave the old potatoes in as well because the little mealworms hide in them and also there could be eggs buried in them. It's very interesting. I keep mine on the screened patio. Weather doesn't bother them but keep it dry. Have Fun.....

GREAT NEWS: Michael Rajkumar has decided to expand our club by forming the "RIDGE" branch of the Sacramento Turtle and Tortoise Club. Michael lives in Magalia which is north of Sacramento in the Orland/Chico/Paradise area.

It is finally warmer and almost everyone has come out of hibernation. I am very surprised to see 99% of the turtles and tortoises made it through the most severe winter I can remember. Even the newborn sliders survived. Believe me, when the temperatures dipped into the low 20's, I regretted leaving them outside. I'm always kicking myself for one reason or another.

Just Jim the Jerk and Just Jim Jr. were very late waking up this year. I was worried that they didn't make it through. They must have dug down deeper due to the weather and a few other Greeks and Hermann's appeared much later than usual and I was very happy to see them. Francois has come up. He's the Gulf Coast box turtle who will drown the females if the water dishes are too full; and my original box turtles, Roger, Rita and Mr. Ed, the Redhead, have also emerged in good shape. The little pond turtle who almost drowned a few years ago is doing well. I never put her back into the regular pond because I didn't think it was safe. So she lives with the smaller sliders and mud and musk turtles.

A bunch of Blondie's & Tarzan's babies have hatched (Leopard tortoises) and will be for sale in the near future. Please email if interested, but I do not want to mail them anywhere. Blondie and her buddies in the greenhouse are anxious to get out of there and enjoy the sunshine and fresh grass again. Speaking of her buddies, the warmer temperatures have awakened them in different ways. James, the ankle biter, has suddenly taken a great interest in Darwin, the deformed leopard who almost lost her life by freezing to death last winter. Often, however, he is not mounting her in the right part of her body and Chester, the ancient Elongata, becomes a nuisance, sort of the equivalent of a Peeping Tom, hanging around and also doing a bit of shoving! He is always let out of the greenhouse earlier than the others and by the time you receive this newsletter, he'll be out patrolling the yard again.

We hear from our Connecticut Bunker...........Dear Felice - OK, so nothing exciting at the Connecticut Bunker Outpost this past summer. Some random egg-laying, some random egg-blocking (which turned into some not so random poo), oh and let's not forget the planned escape of Clyde Henderson, the male Bell's Hingeback tortoise. Two years ago, Clyde bit off the tip of Lieuzerne's nose (Home's Hingeback, male, a force to be reckoned with) so he's been in solitary when outdoors. But I guess he either grew wings or climbed out and is lost. This was the story of his life - having escaped 20 years ago in Cape Cod and being found by an elderly woman. Hopefully his guardian angel will find him again. Some say he's been spotted in New York at various deli's wielding a knife at people but I don't know. DuGrande, the female Turkish Spur-Thigh celebrated her 14th birthday in July and Spaghetti, the female Jordanian Spur-Thigh, also celebrated her 14th birthday on Christmas. Her father, Dr. Goggles, is rumored to be returning to Yale as a surgeon this year. Take Care..........Diane

From our Spring 1985 Newsletter: Coming out of hibernation in Sacramento seems to coincide with changeable weather, so to be on the safe side, don't let your desert tortoise sleep outdoors until the weather is drier and the lawns are not so wet in the mornings. If you must let it stay outdoors, be sure that the sleeping quarters are dry, dry, dry and protected from wind and rain and make sure the tortoise is in the shelter at night because that's when the predators come calling.

UPCOMING MEETINGS:

July 17th - 1:30 to 4
August 21st - TURTLERAMA - 11 to 4 (exhibitors may arrive earlier)
October 23rd - 1:30 to 4 (note changed date!)